ñl eric tlozek: the lowest place on earth, the dead sea, is slipping away. it's been the site of dramatic biblical stories, and the area is still contested today. david elhayani: this is the promised land by god to the jewish. eric: for millennia, treasured for its healing powers. male: i have skin issues, and the sea, when you're in it for a couple hours, it almost takes everything away. female: you're flowing. it's feeling wonderful, like, ooh. eric: modern-day pilgrims still come to bathe in the

salty, mineral-rich waters. male: yeah, every sunday we are coming here--company. eric: but this natural wonder is vanishing at an alarming rate. carmit ish shalom: this is the symbol of what man can do to the nature and without even knowing that he's doing it. eric: at the heart of the israeli-palestinian conflict is the land and its dinishing water. ziyad fuqaha: this is a crisis. this is unacceptable for us. eric: in a divided region, the solutions are disputed and costly. dr. ittai gavrieli: who will pay the price for this water? eric: it might take a modern-day miracle to save the dead sea.

eric: the dead sea is surrounded by jordan, israel, and the west bank. it's fed by waters of the river jordan. eric: this used to be the en gedi beachside resort. families and tourists would stop here to enjoy the sparkling waters. eric: what--are we jumping over here? carmit: yeah. eric: now we're walking into a highly dangerous site, off limits to the public. eric: you can really see it there--look. carmit: yeah, that used to be route 90, which was the main highway in israel, and you can see what is the situation now. a few sinkholes at the main road and also some on the right and

on the left of this road, and now there is no way to use it. eric: and this was only five years ago? carmit: yeah. eric: five years ago, there were trucks coming along here, buses? carmit: yeah, and i think that more than six months, people was driving here, and there were holes underneath it. eric: so it was actually hollow? carmit: yeah, like a sponge. eric: geologist carmit ish shalom lived here for a decade, studying a mysterious phenomenon: sinkholes. eric: this area is the first area where the sinkholes caused a big problem? carmit: yeah, here, near the beach. that was the first sinkholes that we found. eric: this former holiday park was abandoned when sections of it started disappearing into the ground. carmit: at the end of the '80s, they found here the first

sinkhole, and the resort was just closed immediately. eric: and how do you feel when you see this? carmit: it's really scary to think that children could run here on top of nothing. and that was also the main income source of en gedi, which they can't use anymore. eric: as the dead sea continues to shrink, carmit ish shalom knows more and more sinkholes will come. eric: when the salty water of the dead sea recedes, it leaves a thick undergund layer of salt. winter floods rush down from the mountains. the fresh water saturates and dissolves that salt, and huge underground caverns form.

when they eventually collapse, sinkholes appear. carmit: there are more than 6,000 different sinkholes in the israeli side. eric: the resort at en gedi shows how far and how fast the waters have receded. people used to stop here for a swim, but now the water is hundreds of meters away, and the facilities have been destroyed by sinkholes, and they're still forming. carmit: it's a new one. you wanna hear it? eric: sure. carmit: one, two, three, four, five--it's still getting--six, it can be. eric: that is a long way down. carmit: yeah, it's-- eric: eventually this area is going to collapse?

carmit: yeah, yeah, and the reason it's not collapsing yet, i think, it's we have lots of asphalt here, and it's holding it. eric: just near en gedi is a floodplain that flows into the dead sea. eric: scientists from the geological survey of israel come here regularly to try and learn more about sinkholes. eric: morning. eric: i'm meeting geologists ittai gavrieli and gidon baer. they're going to take me down the dry river beds to check their equipment. dr. gidon baer: there, those cracks are an indication that we are approaching a sinkhole area.

just beyond that sinkhole, we have a camera. eric: these scientists have been studying this area for a decade, especially the flash floods that rush through here. gidon: and we are just now getting to our camera. it is a time-lapse camera. eric: the cameras are placed all over the floodplain, waiting to capture footage of these flood events. gidon: every winter, we get flash floods, and flash floods generally used to flow directly to the dead sea, but since a few sinkholes formed along the river beds, flash floods started to be swallowed into those sinkholes and dissolve the salt layer, the 20-meter-deep salt layer, and make their way eastwards towards the dead sea, but underground.

at the beginning, we really didn't know where they came out, but 20, 2013, we started seeing that these waters come out in other sinkholes. so we put cameras in the places where the water was swallowed and cameras where the water came out, and we saw the time difference and really saw that, if you look at the water and it's totally calm--and a few hours after a flash flood, you can really see a vigorous spring coming out of the water, full of dust, full of clay that was carried by the water from the flash flood. eric: only the sciensts are lowed to ce here becse the whole area is considered too dangerous for the public. gidon: we are walking above an area which is really forming

an underground cave system. that's what happening here now. dr. ittai gavrieli: [speaking foreign language] eric: they test the water coming out of a sinkhole to see where it comes from. that tells them how quickly the caves are forming and how big they are. gidon: it matters, first of all, for the sake of safety. the more tunnels, the more dissolution, the less safe it is. eric: this landscape is changing fast. these giant sinkholes are only four years old. ittai: you see this sinkhole? this evolved within two, three years to what you see here now. it's a spectacular landscape that developed over a few years, and over time, we envision that the entire area will be a huge sinkhole with whatever water eventually will overtake it.

eric: the scientists take their samples and information back to jerusalem for testing and analysis. gidon: these are samples we took together. eric: so these are all from sinkholes? gidon: yeah. eric: chemical analysis of the water samples will reveal more about the cave systems, like what minerals have been dissolved and how quickly that's happening. the results will inform the israeli government about how the landscape is changing and how it can be safely used in the future. gidon: we can give them an estimation of where the dangerous areas are. and so this system is short-term prediction. we also use this information to map the entire area in terms of

a sinkhole hazard, and this is used for general purposes of planning, planning recreation areas, planning buildings, planning a new settlement, even. don't plan an area, a settlement in an area where we can tell you that it's going to be prone to sinkholes. eric: one reason the dead sea is shrinking is because humans are taking the water out. it's pumped via canals to shallow evaporation ponds. they've become the new home of the dead sea tourism industry, but many visitors don't realize they're not swimming in the natural sea. male: i think this place is amazing, so whether it's manmade

or not, i think it's got a lot of history. i think it's just look at what the beauty is today and how do we preserve it. male: the water is great. you can float on water because it's the dead sea. it contains a lot of minerals and salts, and that makes you float, which makes everybody enjoy the water. female: and it's--make you very young. eric: nearby, factories in israel and jordan are extracting valuable minals. making potash for fertilizer is big business here. more than half a billion cubic meters of water is sucked out from the dead sea every year. that's roughly equivalent to the volume of sydney harbor. the factories pump a lot back in, but the geological survey of israel says, overall, they're responsible for roughly a

quarter of the water lost from the dead sea. eric: to understand the main cause of the dead sea's demise, we have to travel north to its source. for thousands of years, the jordan river has carried water from the sea of galilee to the dead sea. all that changed with the creation of israel in 1948. the water in the galilee was diverted to supply a growing population and to make the deserts bloom. jordan and syria also take water from this area. the price is a disappearing dead sea and an escalating conflict over water. eric: in the jordan valley, there's a big

demand for water but not enough to go around. palestinian government worker ziyad fuqaha is taking me into the west bank to his home village of kardala. eric: how does it feel to go home? ziyad fuqaha: it's an amazing feeling to be there with your family in your house that you are born in. eric: ziyad's family have farmed this land for generations, but the lack of water restricts them. ziyad: [speaking foreign language] eric: most farmers living here in the west bank are palestinians. ziyad: they have a very big shortage of water. the water allocated for this village actually is less than 50% of the needed water.

ziyad: here is the greenhouse. eric: vegetables are grown in greenhouses to preserve water. eric: that's a big one. ziyad: you can try it. eric: try it raw? ziyad: raw. i'm eating raw. it's full of iron, by the way. eric: that tastes much better raw than i expected. ziyad: i like it like this. kardala area, we have around five cubic meters per hour, which is supplied by the israeli company. they use it for crops, agriculture, and also they use it for, you know, household usage. the demand is much more higher. you need more than 12 to 15 cubic meters per hour. eric: three times as much? ziyad: three times as much. eric: ziyad says the restrictions placed on palestinians fuel tensions with the jewish settlers who take

much more water. the settlers came here after israel captured and occupied the west bank in 1967. international law deems the jewish settlements illegal. palestinians say their homeland and their water are being stolen. ziyad: it's israeli farms irrigated by palestinian water which is the water beneath our feet right now. israelis are extracting it from their wells, distributing it to their settlements. imagine that, israelis in their settlements, they are swimming, they are filling up their swimming pools, they are the palestinians here are facing the isis of drinking water.while

th is actually--this is a crisis. this is unacceptable for us. eric: around 5,000 palestinians live in three farming villages in this part of the jordan valley. ziyad: [speaking foreign language] eric: today, one family is holding an engagement party. ziyad: this is the man who would like to marry tomorrow, and this is his father, yeah. eric: they serve fresh lamb from the village. ziyad: this is mansaf. eric: this is the number one palestinian-- ziyad: number one palestinian food. eric: what's the spice? ziyad: hm, it's the job of the woman. i don't know what the-- eric: the population of these villages is growing, but this area is under the full control of the israeli military. ziyad: they are pushing them to leave their land, to leave their homes. because of that, they are not allowing them to have permits

for reconstruction to build a new home. eric: later, we witnessed these tensions ourselves. outside the village, we see a confrontation between israeli soldiers and locals. eric: the palestinians in this village, they're trying to build a new road, repave the one to the school, but the israeli military has come in here and stopped them. they're threatening to seize the truck. that's because they control everything here, even what the palestinians do in their villages with their money. eric: the road is decades old, and the village council got a loan to repair it. there's nothing they can do to stop the soldiers seizing

their equipment. ghassan fuqah: every day, we are--every day they are come here, every week, every month, every hour, forbidding us to do anything--no buildings, no mosques, no anything. even water pipes, they've forbidden us to do that. why? eric: today the fight is about a road, but the underlying cause is land and water. eric: over at the israeli farms, it's a different story. there's plenty of water. david elhayani: hi, eric. eric: nice to meet you. david: nice to meet you. how are you? eric: first bump. david: it's a rainy day. eric: david elhayani runs this farm. eric: he also heads the yesha council, which represents jewish settlers in the israeli- occupied west bank.

david: so when we came to the jordan valley, we found a desert. you know, there are some time in the summer we have 52 celsius degrees. yeah, we found a desert. nothing was growing here. so now the jordan valley is green. eric: david's family grows herbs, dates, flowers, and vegetables for israel and export. his workers are primarily palestinian. david: the route 90 was empty. now every palestinian have a new car, sometimes two cars. they don't get it by working in the palestinian authority. they get it because they are working with us, because they get a good salary, because they have the opportunity to buy the

cars, the opportunity to build the new houses. eric: the small number of jewish settlers here live in fenced communities, guarded by the israeli military. some believe god gave them this land. david elhayani lives in this hilltop settlement above a palestinian village. david: shalom, ima. david: i came here to the jordan valley to argaman community. since 1983, i'm a farmer. i have three children, so all of them are married, and this is their children. they have five, and now we hope that we have more.

eric: the small settlement is green and quiet. there are irrigated lawns and a swimming pool although it's closed. israel controls all the water in the jordan valley under a temporary agreement that was meant to expire by the end of the 1990s. much more per capita goes to the jewish settlers, but they don't see any inequality. david: we pay more than them for the water, more than them for the water, so they can do whenever they want. eric: but there are clearly two different ways of living here, inside and outside the wire. it's not just the israelis and palestinians who revere these waters. above the jordan valley is the ancient city of jerusalem.

here, priests of the armenian orthodox church prepare for an important annual ritual. father koryoun baghdasaryan is getting ready to head down to the sacred waters of the jordan river. father koryoun baghdasaryan: today is the feast of the epiphany of the armenian church, and we are getting prepared to go down to the jordan river to the baptismal site where, according to the new testament, john the baptist baptized jesus christ. for us, it's very important, especially because only the armenian church keep the tradition as it was celebrated in the fourth century by the universal christian church. eric: covid-19 restrictions mean the priests need a police

escort and can only bring 50 people instead of hundreds. they descend through the judean desert into the jordan valley. the baptism site is on the militarized border between jordan and the palestinian territories cupied by israel. access is controlled by the israeli military. at the river, the priests are met by their armenian counterparts in jordan across the water. male: [speaking foreign language] eric: the patriarch blesses the river's waters, and priests collect them to use in baptisms and benedictions throughout the year. father baghdasaryan: once the water of the river is blessed as

a miraculous water, and everyone that has any kind of pains or any kind of bad feelings, he can wash himself with this water, and he can be healed. eric: while it's holy water for some, the reality is that the source of the dead sea, the jordan river, is now a polluted stream. all the water that makes it down this far is sewage or from springs too salty for agriculture. eric: back at the dead sea and dpite the danger from the sinkholes, the more intrepid are still going into the salty water. doron: it's so close to tel aviv, and it's amazing when you're in the metropolis, and you drive one hour, and you're in the desert, in the lowest place on earth.

nurit: it's beautiful, and we love it. we're coming here very often. samantha: a little bit like my own private paradise, like a taste of heaven on earth. it's like no-man's-land. no one's here. it's so dangerous that, like, nobody really can be here. sometimes it's scary. like, today when i was at the sinkhole, like, a big part of the wall just caved in and, like, made a mini tsunami, and i was, like, all alone. eric: these swimming holes are only accessible because the dead sea is shrinking. this place used to be underwater, but the continuing decline means this area won't stay like this for long. doron: it's amazing. eric: there are proposals to pump more treated sewage into the dead sea to slow its decline or even fill the jordan river with desalinated sea water.

another plan called "red to dead," would see brine from a proposed desalination plant jordan pumped into the sea, but the project has stalled and concerns remain about its environmental impact. ittai: if and when this happens, we are going to impose changes on the composition of the lake, changes that the lake has not seen for millions of years, four to five millions of years. then is it feasible at all to bring in hundreds and hundreds of cubic, of many cubic meters, to the dead sea for them to evaporate when there is shortage of water in the region? eric: israel is now pumping some water back into this system, but it's not enough. neither the farmers nor the factories are proposing to take less water to help save the dead sea.

for the foreseeable future, it's going to keep shrinking. ittai: but if you look at the vast shores and mudflats and sinkholes, it's a beautiful landscape. eric: these scientists accept the fate of the dead sea, but they hope that people will be able to enjoy this unique place. ittai: if it's organized--and people are aware--and well maintained, then it can be a perfect tourism site. i mean, i just imagine. i always compare it to yellowstone park. it's extremely dangerous if you walk there on your own and not, you know, follow the path and the marks. same thing should be done here, can be done here, and it could be an amazing attraction. eric: but that means accepting a future where the dead sea will keep disappearing, its shattering shoreline extending further every year until it's a much smaller, even saltier shadow of its former self.

carmit: it's a monument for what people are doing without knowing what it's gonna make to the area. i think that, when people stop the jordan river from entering the dead sea, they didn't think that that will be the price for it. if our children will say that they wanted to save it, they can't even do it because it's too late. everything that's happening here, it's because of us. ♪♪♪

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